Erik And The Dragon ( Book 4)

by Sam Ferguson

  “You were fifteen?” Erik asked skeptically.

  Marlin nodded. “We wrote each other a letter or two, but the distance made it impossible to keep up for long. Eventually she stopped answering my letters.”

  “Why didn’t you go and try to find her?” Erik asked.

  “Let’s just say that her father didn’t like me much,” Marlin replied. “Thought I was too rebellious and ornery. Actually he called me ‘ungodly’ once and chased me with a stick when he caught me kissing her.”

  “You?” Erik asked. He tried to imagine Marlin, the Prelate of Valtuu Temple, as an unruly romantic, but couldn’t even imagine it with a straight face. “I bet he would die now if he knew what you have become.”

  Marlin pulled his arm back and motioned for Erik to sit down on a wooden bench near the front of the barge. “I suppose he would.”

  “Do you ever regret it?” Erik asked. “Not going after her I mean.”

  Marlin thought for a while before answering. “I think about what might have happened if we had run away together. We talked about it, you know, before her family departed. But there isn’t much use in daydreaming about the past. If you spend too much time looking behind you, you’ll just trip yourself up in the present and miss the opportunities of the future.”

  Erik started to ask where the girl went, what she looked like, or what her name was, but Tatev arrived just then and flopped down beside him on the bench.

  “You will never believe what I found!” Tatev exclaimed.

  Marlin and Erik turned to see a thick, blue leather bound book with a golden symbol on the front.

  “Is that what I think it is?” Marlin asked.

  “Yes!” Tatev squealed excitedly. “The Infinium!”

  “Wait,” Erik said as he turned back to Marlin. “How do you know what it looks like?”

  Marlin traced his finger over the golden symbol. “This is written with magic,” he explained.

  Heavy boot steps approached and Erik looked up to see Master Lepkin and Lady Dimwater standing in front of them.

  “The Infinium?” Lepkin asked.

  Tatev nodded sheepishly. “I was going to ask for your permission to read it for him, of course, but I got excited when I saw Marlin and wanted to tell him first.”

  “What is it?” Erik asked, noting the sour expression on Lepkin’s face.

  “I don’t think he needs to focus on that for now,” Lepkin said tersely. “The knowledge in that book will not help him against Tu’luh, and that is what we must concentrate on.”

  Tatev frowned, but did not back down as he normally did. He stood up, face to face with Lepkin and looked the warrior dead in the eyes. “I disagree,” he squeaked. “The Infinium may not be entirely relevant, but it is relevant insomuch as it has information which can help Erik answer why Tu’luh showed him the visions at Valtuu Temple. It will help him understand the four—”

  “Not another word,” Lepkin said sternly. “He doesn’t need to know about that, not yet.”

  “If this book will help me understand the four fireballs that Tu’luh showed me, then I want to know,” Erik said quickly. “I want to know what they are.”

  Lepkin arched a brow and slowly turned to face Erik. “Why?”

  “Because Tu’luh said that without Nagar’s Secret, this world would be doomed. If that is true, and these four fireballs are destined to come, then I need to know that what I am doing now is worth it. I need to know that we are doing the right thing.”

  “Slavery to Nagar’s Secret would be worse,” Lepkin said.

  “I want to believe that,” Erik said. “And I do, for now. But I need to know for sure.” Erik sighed and slumped his shoulders.

  “What else?” Marlin asked. “Go on, tell us what else is on your mind.”

  Erik looked up with tears in his eyes. “So many have already given their lives,” he said with a cracking voice. “If we are to fight Tu’luh, and destroy the book, then I want to know why these fireballs will come. I want to know if we can stop them.”

  Lepkin’s hard face melted away into an expression of shock. He folded his arms and leaned back from Erik for a moment, cocking his head to the side and studying the boy. Lady Dimwater wrapped her hands around Lepkin’s thick right arm and leaned in slowly, whispering something into his ear that Erik couldn’t hear. Lepkin nodded and looked back to Tatev. “Very well, Tatev, you have until we reach the falls to study the book with Erik.”

  Tatev nodded. Lepkin and Dimwater walked away.

  Marlin patted Erik on the back. “I am going to go and sit with them,” he said. “Good luck with the research.”

  Tatev let out a relieved sigh when everyone was gone. He sat down quickly and his hands were shaking. “I thought Lepkin was going to eat me!” he said under his breath.

  Erik laughed and sat down next to Tatev. For once he was actually looking forward to talking with the man. “So, this book can tell us about the fireballs?” Erik asked.

  The curly red-headed man nodded enthusiastically, instantly forgetting about his nerves and wiping a palm across the front of the book. “The first thing you should know, is they are not fireballs. They are men, or something like men.”

  Erik screwed up his face. “Men?” he asked. “What kind of men appear as fireballs?”

  Tatev paused tentatively with his index finger hooked under the cover. “We don’t actually have a word for them exactly. We know only what they are called in their tongue.”

  “Which is what?” Erik asked.

  “Cherusaphi,” Tatev whispered quietly. “But we don’t say their name very often, even amongst ourselves,” he added quickly.

  “So what should I call them?” Erik asked.

  Tatev slowly opened the cover to reveal the first page. Erik looked down and saw four images. Each one was like a man, except a tall, slender pair of wings extended high into the air above them. Each man sat upon a horse made of fire, and each held a great sword in their right hand and a skull in their left hand. The librarian ran his fingers over the image. “We call them the four horsemen,” he said.

  Chills ran down Erik’s spine. He glanced around him, half expecting to find a specter watching him. Nothing was there. He saw Lepkin and the others sitting on the other side of the barge, but the sight of his friends did little to assuage the fear that gripped his soul.

  “So the fireballs I saw were their horses?” Erik asked.

  Tatev nodded.

  “And they will come to attack us?” Erik asked. “How can four men destroy a whole world?”

  Tatev closed the book and sighed. “It is difficult to explain in short,” he said. “What do you know of Terramyr’s creation?”

  Erik shrugged. “The old gods created it, and everything in it.”

  Tatev nodded. “With the help of the Ancients,” he added pointedly. “That is why Tu’luh is so bent on stopping these horsemen.”

  “What do you mean?” Erik asked.

  “The four horsemen are said to come from somewhere where even the old gods themselves cannot go. They wield power that not even the gods can fathom. No one knows who sends them on their errand, but it is said that once they are sent the end is unavoidable.”

  “The end?”

  Tatev turned to Erik and nodded. “They are sent to kill worlds. They strike at the very heart of the world, and kill it as easily as a warrior might kill a sleeping baby. They wield not only weapons, but famines, pestilence, and great magic.”

  “And they are coming here?”

  Tatev pushed his spectacles up onto the bridge of his nose and nodded solemnly. “They might.”

  Erik leaned back on the bench and looked around him. There were several other men on the dock, preparing the barge to travel, and the barge master himself had finally arrived, barking orders and ensuring his cargo was all in order.

  “Where is Lepkin?” the barge master called out to Erik and Tatev. The two of them pointed to Lepkin and the barge master trudged on, barely acknowledging the
ir help with a slight nod. “You bring enough food for your mules?” the barge master asked.

  Erik watched the man for a moment and then turned back to Tatev. “Why would the horsemen come here, do they destroy worlds just because they can?”

  “Oh, no, not at all,” Tatev said quickly. “According to everything I have ever read and heard about them, they are sent to destroy worlds that have become too corrupted. Some higher council sends them in an attempt to maintain order.” He slowly opened the book again and flipped to the first page of text. “That is why the Ancients came to the Middle Kingdom,” he said wistfully. “In the beginning, the Ancients came to Icadion, the All Father, and asked for permission to reside in our world. The All Father allowed this, and the Ancients in turn vowed to help establish a place on Terramyr where they might guide and watch over the mortals that the old gods would put in their care.”

  “I thought the Ancients created the dwarves in the middle kingdom,” Erik said quickly. “I was reading with Al and the book said…”

  “Quite right,” Tatev confirmed. “They did, along with some of the other races soon thereafter, but they were not the first creatures in all of Terramyr. Those were simply the first members of the Blessed Races to live in the Middle Kingdom. The Ancients then helped establish the kingdom itself, and swore to watch over and guide all who lived in the Middle Kingdom.”

  “Until the battle in Hamath Valley,” Erik said.

  Tatev nodded. “The interesting thing, is that Tu’luh was one of the original dragons to come to the Middle Kingdom. I have read a lot about the Ancients, and I know that there were several who all came to Icadion during the creation period. Not all of them are named, of course, but there are several dragons that are named in the ancient annals. Tu’luh is among those that are named specifically as having spoken directly with Icadion.”

  Erik screwed up his face. “If Tu’luh knows Icadion, then why would he try to ally with Nagar? Couldn’t he just turn to the old gods for help?”

  Tatev raised a finger. “Therein lies the thorn that pesters his backside,” Tatev said. “After Atek Tangui rose to power, the old gods cut off the bridge between this world and Volganor, the Heaven City. The Ancients were left to their own devices as the mortals in the world started to turn away from the old traditions. As the demigods rose in power, so the Ancients did wane in their influence. Only here, in the Middle Kingdom, were the Ancients directly involved in the matters of our existence.”

  Erik sighed. He was trying to keep up, but he couldn’t help but feel slightly overwhelmed. Religion had never been his strong suit, and history was not much better in his opinion. “I don’t know,” Erik said after a moment. Tatev closed the book and placed it on Erik’s lap. The tome was very heavy, as if made with pages of brass instead of paper.

  “Think about it,” Tatev said. “Tu’luh is Hiasyntar Ku’lai’s son, a prince if you will. He was using the magic because he was trying to avoid the impending arrival of the four horsemen. He has seen it before, and is afraid of what will happen if they come here as well. He knows firsthand the danger that lurks in the great beyond.”

  “So he is trying to save us all, and if I slay him, I will be sentencing our world to death?” Erik asked. He shook his head. “It sounds like I am fighting on the wrong team.”

  Tatev grabbed Erik’s chin forcefully and turned the boy’s face to lock eyes with him. “No, no, no, no!” Tatev assured him. “We are on the right side, I am sure of that.”

  “How are you so certain?” Erik countered. “If the world ends, there will be no future at all. How is that better than letting Tu’luh use his magic to rule the Middle Kingdom?”

  “Because,” Tatev began, “it is better to die free than to live a slave.”

  “But is it better to have no life at all than to live as a slave?” Erik fired back. “It is not simply a choice between living as a slave and living free. The choice I see here is living as a slave or condemning all the world to death.”

  “Tu’luh is very wise, and extremely cunning,” Tatev said. “But even he is not certain that the horsemen are coming. The vision he showed you was a mix of what might be in our future, and what has been in his past.” Tatev took the Infinium back from Erik. “Either way, there is a rumor that the secret to avoiding the four horsemen is written in this book.”

  Erik looked at the blue leather book and then back up to Tatev. “Are you telling me that this book holds the knowledge to save the world from the four horsemen, and it was just sitting here in Axestone, and nobody cares about it?”

  Tatev smiled and shook his head. “Not exactly,” he said.

  Erik slapped his thighs and let out a frustrated sigh. “I don’t understand you,” he said. “Most of the time you go on and on with such clear detail that I can learn everything about something like your glasses, but now, when the subject is so important it will help me decide whether or not I want to find Tu’luh and fight him again you talk in riddles.”

  Tatev frowned. “Alright,” he said quietly. “The truth is that many people have tried to read The Infinium. All of those people have either been driven mad to the point that they killed themselves, or they have been turned to babbling idiots. The most anyone has ever successfully done is to read the first few portions of the book.” Tatev turned the book so that Erik could see the edges of the pages. “The portions with these pages, the ones that look lighter in color, those anyone can read without problem.” Then he rubbed a finger over the darker portions a couple times. “The portions that look brown, those are the dangerous parts.” He opened the book to the first brown page.

  Erik saw a strange golden cord tied into a bow over the page. He could see that the cord actually went through all the rest of the pages, sealing them shut. A small lock held the tied cord in place so it could not be accidentally undone.

  “To open this portion, and look at its contents, is to tempt fate itself,” Tatev said in a voice barely above a whisper. He stared at the golden knot for quite a while before closing the book. “As it is, there are many things I am hoping to uncover in the first portion. Things that will help us learn more about the vision Tu’luh showed you, and see whether it is an accurate depiction of what will happen, or simply a representation of what might happen.”

  “What if you find out that he is right?” Erik asked. “Then what do we do?”

  Tatev shrugged. “Then I suppose we will have to open the bound portion of the book and see if we can’t stare into the gaping black hole of fate to find the answers we are looking for.” Tatev rose to his feet then and started to walk away. “Go back to Lepkin and Marlin,” he said. “I have told you all I can for now. If I find something useful, I will come and let you know.”

  Erik watched the curious librarian walk away, shoving his nose deep into the first few pages of The Infinium and nearly stumbling every other step as he banged into crates or barrels on the barge. Erik was now feeling more confused than he had ever been. He kicked his feet out and stretched his legs while he leaned his head back over the top of the bench, letting his neck and head dangle ever so slightly. He couldn’t help but feel powerless and trapped. Worse than that, he was starting to question Lepkin, which was something he had never done before. Sure, he had always found his master hard, difficult to study under, and extremely rigid and strict, but never in his wildest dreams had he ever imagined Lepkin to be wrong. Now that possibility was creeping full into Erik’s mind, and the vision that Tu’luh showed him of the horsemen came along with it.

  He thought about the title that he was supposed to have as the prophesied hero. The Champion of Truth. An interesting phrase now, it seemed. He closed his eyes and focused hard. What was truth, exactly? Before it had seemed so clear. Right against wrong, the dark and the light. But now? Now everything was gray, and the answers were no longer easy. He thought about all of the people who had fought with him at his home. Had they all died for nothing? Would he have been better off sparing their lives and convincing them to
join the warlock? What good would it really serve to protect the Middle Kingdom from Nagar’s Secret only to have these unstoppable horsemen come and destroy the entire world?

  The barge lurched sideways and then the river’s current pushed it downstream.

  “Next stop, the falls above Hamath Valley,” the barge master shouted.

  Erik looked up and watched Axestone fall away from them as the current slowly built up speed and pushed the barge faster and faster on its way. He realized then that he shared a lot in common with the barge. Both were being pushed by forces much stronger than they, and the course of those forces seemed unstoppable regardless of any action he might take. In that moment he felt more prisoner than champion.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “Eldrik,” Silvi said softly as the boat lurched to a stop next to some rocks. The waves rhythmically bumped the side of the boat into a large, algae covered rock and Silvi stretched her hand out in a vain attempt to steady them. “We are here.”

  “I don’t want you to call me that anymore,” he responded. “My name is Aparen.”

  Silvi nodded wearily. “I forgot,” she said. “Come, let’s go.”

  Aparen nodded and the two of them clambered out into the shallow water, splooshing down and sinking slightly in the sand below. They let the boat drift off and carried their belongings onto the beach. Aparen’s stomach growled loudly.

  “I have another piece of bread left,” Silvi offered.

  Aparen turned up his nose at it and shook his head. He checked that the emerald amulet was secure around his neck and then he adjusted his belt to straighten his clothing. “So, where do we go from here?” he asked.

  “Follow me,” Silvi said. She tossed her raven black hair behind her shoulders and trudged up the gently sloping beach. Sand and bits of shells clung to the bottom of her white dress and caked her shoes and legs. Aparen followed only half a step behind.